Hi everybody
I'am in my early thirties (1986). I especially like to visit big cities (no matter where in the world) and stay there long enough to absorb everything that particular city has to offer a visitor/passer-bye/citizen/... So apart from the big landmarks and museums, that also means the quaint and not-so-quaint back alleys, the architecture in a common street, parks, bicycle lanes, thrift stores, theater, press and off course local residents!

Before visiting, I usually read up on the history of that city (first settlers, founding of a village, growth into a town/city, role within the wider region/nation, role within the wider historical framework and literary/art/political/thinkers movements and lots more)

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

Since hotels/youth hostels/... are pretty much the same everywhere, I prefer the authentic experience of the local variant of an "ordinary house"! I also think its a great way to get to know people from all over the world and share/learn/discuss outlooks on life!

Interests

History:
The development from the earliest farmers villages into town and eventually full scale monumental cities in Turkey, The Levant and Mesopotamia (Iraq)

The Roman Empire
Chinese empire
The Mayas and Aztecs
the Incas
Al-Andalus: Morish Spain

The medieval merchant cities of The county of Flanders, the Duchy of Brabant and the rest of the later Burgundian Netherlands: Bruges, Ghent, Antwerp, Brussels, Mechelen, Leuven, Tournai, Liege, ...

Italian city-states like Milan, Firenze, Napoli, ...

European colonialism from the 15th century to the 18th century

The civil Rights movement in the US in the second half of the fifties and first half of the sixties

• literature
• poetry
• movies
• cycling
• archeology
• history
• philosphy
• fleamarkets
• retrogaming
• architecure

Music, Movies, and Books

music: Beatles, Tracy Chapman, Paul Simon, Suzanne Vega, Kate Nash, Tom Paxton, Bob Marley

Books:
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings - Maya Angelou
SPQR: A history of ancient Rome - Mary Beard
The Catcher in the Rye - Salinger
Stride Toward Freedom: The Montgomery Story - Martin Luther King
Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
and tons of history and philosophy books

Movies:
Before Sunrise; Before Sunset; Before Midnight
Dazed and Confused
Into the Wild
Who framed Roger Rabbit
Coming to America
Man Up
The Godfather
Disney classics like Aladdin, Robin Hood, Jungle Book, The princess and the Frog
other animation like: Spirited Away, Paprika, ...

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

Hopped on my bicycle right in front of my house and 8 days later got off in Copenhagen. Along the way, me and my cycling companion slept in people's gardens, sheds, on the floor of a second-hand-store and in the attic of a student building

We also made cycling trips through the whole of the Netherlands, to Cologne, Paris, London and Berlin.